East Bay Nature owner Joanie Smith gives a talk about attracting birds and bees to your garden at Our Garden in Walnut Creek.

Various types of bird feeders and a bird house are on display following a talk with East Bay Nature owner Joanie Smith about attracting birds and bees to your garden at Our Garden in Walnut Creek, Calif., on Wednesday, Sept. 27, 2017. (Anda Chu/Bay Area News Group)

Joanie Smith, owner of East Bay Nature in Walnut Creek and Dublin, says there are five essential elements for success — water, food, cover, nesting and safety.

Water if the No. 1 attractant, she says, even more than food. Birdbaths are obvious additions, but instead of using a decorative bowl on a pedestal, or one that hangs from a tree, try a ground bath. It is more natural for birds, and it helps eliminate one concern — predators hiding beneath the pedestal baths.

The baths should be shallow — no more than 1 or 1-1/2 inches deep. While there are plenty of beautiful, glass birdbaths, Smith says they often are too slippery. Birds like to be able to grip onto something, so concrete or rougher type baths are better. If you do have a glass bowl, consider putting rocks in it.

Moving water, even slight drips, will also draw birds. Smith says that became apparent to her when she noticed several birds flying around the side of her house to the back. It was a steady flow of them, she says, and when she went out to see what was attracting them, she found them bathing and splashing in a leaky connection for a washing machine.

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You can easily add a drip to your existing birdbath.

Food is important, too, and you can vary the types of food and feeders depending on the birds you want to attract. The most popular seed, Smith says, is shelled sunflowers, called chipped sunflower seeds. It also is the least messy.

Safflower is popular, too, she says, and has an added benefit that most squirrels don’t like it. Don’t mix safflower with other seeds — the squirrels will just pick out the stuff they like.

Many birds — seed-eaters and insectivores both — like suet, which is rendered beef fat that has nuts and fruits mixed in. There is a variety of suet flavors as well as devices to hold them.

Choose feeders that are suitable for the bird feed. On tube feeders, the more ports it has, the more birds you’ll attract.

Blooming plants that provide birds with nectar, seeds and berries will also make your yard a welcoming place.

The third need for attracting birds, Smith says, is cover — trees, shrubs and brush that provide hiding places for birds to escape danger and to build nests.

For cavity dwellers — birds that create nests inside of dead trees and crags — installing nesting boxes, Smith says, will attract birds and help them find places to raise their young. The size of the entrance hole is crucial, Smith says. Small birds nesting in boxes with holes that are too large will open their nests up to predators.

Don’t use birdhouses that are created as decorations, not nesting boxes. Their emphasis is on looking pretty or cute, not on what birds need. These decorative houses could have holes that are too large, metal roofs that will create conditions that are too hot, or they might be made of materials that provide no insulation.

Lastly, we need to make sure our yards are safe for birds to visit, so that means keeping your cats indoors. If your neighbor has roaming cats, Smith says, it would be best not to attract birds to your yard. It’s not fair to the birds, she says, who are in their natural habitat.

We can’t protect the birds from all predators — hawks need to eat, too, she says — but we can make them more secure by placing nesting boxes, feeders and birdbaths in protected areas.

Birds can bring a lot of joy and entertainment to our yards, but they also are helpful in keeping insect populations in check and for helping with pollination. Another good aid are mason bees, and you can attract them by installing bee blocks.

Mason bees are good neighbors — they don’t sting and are non-aggressive. The males will mate with the females, then die. The females lay eggs in the small holes of the bee block and then seal them with mud. There is only one generation each year.

The bees are excellent pollinators, Smith says, much better than honey bees. The mason bees will visit every flower while the honey bees tend to focus on one type.

Joan Morris is the pets & wildlife columnist for the Bay Area News Group. She also writes about gardening and is the founder of Our Garden, a demonstration garden in Walnut Creek. Morris started her career in 1978 as a reporter for a small New Mexico newspaper. She has lived in the Bay Area since 1988.

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